I hate to say but I don’t think there is one super solution. for different situations there are different tools and as the years go by you learn the trade this being said there are some actual plugins that do a pretty decent job, but then again none of them works well for all the different situations. Fluid mask is something special and it has got some pretty awesome trickery under the hood. if you do this alot then you might want to consider using a 3rd party plugin for photoshop. there are some good reviews about the masking tools for photoshop but then again most of them are not up to date and as the softwares evolve, the nr 1 spot changes constantly.

I’m quite sure the logo could be saved with couple of easy fixes. In my opinion the type face is silly but also playful and actually fits the purpose very well. the only thing i would change is the illustrator bush you used for the bike. to me that brush actually looks too packed, meaning that the stroke length should be longer or the stroke itself should be a lot thinner and thats not really an option since it would lose the feel of weight and make the bike element way too thin. Instead try a cleaner brush. alot cleaner and manually add some spatter / dirt on it. but not too much. Sometimes less is more and i believe it would actually make it easier for people to see it as dirt. now it looks more like a slightly misused brush stroke, if you know what i mean. you know contrast between a smooth line and spatter… Cheers!